New York Stories

These stories were written in New York over twenty-eight years, from love stories begun in 1994 to immigrant narratives of 2022. Many grew from people Sonia Hu met and experiences she heard about, turning encounters, fragile romances and the struggle to build a life into fiction.

New York is the collection’s principal setting, alongside stories taking place in China. Through emotional entanglements, personal loss and changing circumstances, Hu considers how writing can preserve the memory of an era. Recording what people see, feel and think becomes a way to leave traces of lives that time will otherwise carry away.